Campus Organizations

Transfer Guidelines for Records of Student, Faculty, and Staff Organizations

Office of Special Collections and Records Management

David O. McKay Library

Brigham Young University-Idaho

Special Collections is the repository for the non-current records of the University as well as for related organizations within the campus community. Special Collections functions as a research center on the history of the institution and the activities of its students, staff, faculty, and alumni. The records of student, faculty, and staff organizations form an important part of the campus's historical legacy. The following guidelines will assist members of organizations in identifying those portions of their files that are appropriate for preservation in the Special Collections. In some instances it may be more appropriate for the organization to keep these records in the office. Consult with a Special Collections Librarian before weeding and reorganizing such records when determining how best to store archival information in an office.

Items to be transferred include:

Official records: constitutions and bylaws, minutes and proceedings, lists of officers and members

Publications: one record copy of all programs, journals, monographs, newsletters, brochures, posters, and announcements issued by the organization or its subdivisions; Special Collections should be placed on the mailing list to receive all future publications

Photographs required only for a limited time to ensure the completion of a routine action or the preparation of a subsequent record are not collected

Photographs are collected if content within them are easily identifiable or otherwise identified

Photographic content should relate to the person, activity, or event of the collection wherein they belong

End-product charts and maps that pertain to completed projects and activities

Records that should not be transferred to Special Collections include:

Records of specific financial and membership transactions

Letters of transmittal where the date and routing information is on the document transmitted

Requests for publications or information after requests have been filled

All blank forms and unused printed or duplicated materials

All duplicate material: keep only the original copy and heavily annotated copies

Papers, reports, surveys information, work papers, and drafts that have been published

Replies to questionnaires if the results are recorded and preserved either in Special Collections or in a published report

Artifacts and memorabilia

Materials should be transferred in the order in which the records' creator maintained them. A letter briefly identifying the materials and describing the activity to which they relate should accompany the transfer.